Long Lost
by iloveplayrehearsal13
Summary: Jack Kelly had never expected to see his sister Delilah again. Delilah had never expected to see her brother again. But fate had some other ideas in mind.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi guys! This is my first ever story thing so it might be really crappy. Bear with me! I might not be able to upload as much as I like because, well, life gets in the way! But I promise I'll try to update at least every week. Also, I can't write with the New York accent, so just assume that every time a newsie speaks, it's with an accent hehe. Another note, I'm sorry I made Race so annoying, I just felt like it, you know? No hate tolerated, constructive criticism and ideas appreciated! Mwah love you guys!**

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Delilah Kelly didn't necessarily want to be kicked out of her uncle's house. Ever since her parents died, she had gone to live with Uncle Edward, an abusive man that didn't want her there in the first place. She had strict rules to follow, and was punished if she ever disobeyed in the slightest. She had the scars on her back to prove it. Even though she was only twelve, Delilah knew she wasn't confined to her uncle's musty little house with shutters that creaked every time there was the slightest breeze. So, she didn't necessarily want to be kicked out.

You might be wondering why she had gotten kicked out in the first place. The answer to that question is that she had come out as bisexual to her uncle in a fit of rage as he tried to arrange a marriage with the baker's son. He always did this, trying to bid his niece off to a wealthy family with a suitable son. The problem is, all the money went to him. Dellie, (as all her friends called her), had never wanted that. She'd always known that she was bi after nine-year old Dellie had gotten a crush on another girl in her grade at school.

So, now she was on the streets, with a dirty dress and no shoes, trying desperately to think of a solution to her problem. Then a light-bulb went off in her head. _Jack!_ She hadn't seen her brother in four years, but she knew he had made a living selling newspapers. Renewed with a burst of determined energy, she bolted off to find the Manhattan newsies.

She asked around for about two hours, and had finally gotten discouraged, but at that exact time, she heard a loud voice with a heavy New York accent shouting, "Papes! Papers! Get your evening pape here!" She ran to the boy selling newspapers, and asked, "Excuse me, I'm looking for Jack. Can you take me to him?" The newsie looked her up and down and asked, "Why should I?" Dellie was taken aback. The boy had hair the color of wheat, a cigar in his and mouth, although it wasn't lit. She wanted to make a snappy remark to the blonde, but managed to keep her composure. "He's my brother, and I need to see him." The boy now looked even more smug. "Jack don't have no sister. Now scurry away, girl." This time, she snapped. "My name is Delilah Margaret Kelly, and I need to see my brother!" She said in a calm, commanding voice. She was good at hiding her anger.

"Woah, woah woah!" The boy replies with surprise in his voice. "I like a girl with spunk!" Her cheeks burned, just a little. "For sure, I'll take you to Jack." Delilah sighed with relief, and followed the blonde-haired boy as he walked briskly down the path.

Pretty soon, they had reached a clearing that was beneath a penthouse. "I don't think I introduced meself. My name is Race, I'm seventeen." He spit in his hand and extended it to Dellie. She made a face. "That's just disgusting," She replied, and Race cracked up. "Jack should be here any minute now, it's the end of the day." He told the girl.

"I'll introduce you to some of my friends!" Race exclaims, and pushes her toward the center of the clearing. She hadn't noticed the rambunctious teenagers surrounding the site, and scolded herself for doing so. "Here's Crutchie, Albert, Finch, and Specs." He pointed to each one respectively. Specs waved to her, and Finch and Albert didn't even notice. Crutchie however, hobbled over on his crutch and introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Crutchie!" He says with the biggest smile Dellie had ever seen on anyone's face. "And you are..." He says with the same energy. "Delilah. You can call me Dellie if you want!" Crutchie smiled even brighter, if that was possible.

"Woah, woah," Race intervened. "You got promoted to 'call me Dellie' level already? Unfair!" Even Dellie had to laugh at that. It was surprising to her that she felt right at home with these boys. "There he is!" Race shouted suddenly, and Dellie turned her head toward what he was looking at.

Jack.

She ran right over, a smile forming on her lips. She didn't really remember any memories she had with her brother. It was all washed away with the pain she felt at every lash on her back and arms. All she knew was the she loved him so very much. Dellie was a bit worried though. She didn't know if he even remembered her!

Jack was halfway to the others, taking his hat off. He spotted Dellie for a moment and their eyes met. He veered off course and threw Dellie into his arms. Even she was a bit surprised at that. "Is it really you?" He said, with the warmness in his voice Dellie used to know. "Yeah, it's me." She fought hard to keep the tears back. "I missed you so much," she said after a long time in her brother's arms. Jack pulled the girl even closer and Dellie giggled. "Jack, I can't breathe!" She pulled away from him and took his hand.

"What are you doing here?" Jack said incredulously, squeezing her hand. "It's kind of a long story," Dellie replied, cocking her head like she used to do. "You can tell me later." Jack said, and took her to the center of the clearing. Almost all the newsies were watching now, with surprise, happiness, and shock in various stages on their faces. "For now," Jack told her. "Welcome to the Manhattan newsies!"


	2. Long Lost Chapter 2

**Hey! This is my second chapter and I'm really liking writing this so far! This is kind of a filler chapter because something big happens next chapter hehe. So enough talk, on with the story!**

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Dellie was having a great time. She had done some catching up with Jack and talked to all of the newsies. The plan was for her to watch Jack or Crutchie for the first week (Her brother wouldn't let her stay with anyone else, much to Race's despair), and learn the ways of the newspaper-selling boys. After that, she would start selling her own.

Although she wouldn't like to say it out loud, Racetrack Higgins had grown on her. She liked messing around with him, even though that sometimes had gotten her in trouble. He also had tried to get her to try his cigar, which didn't put him exactly on good terms with Jack. Crutchie, however, was beginning to be her best friend. Even though he used a crutch, his personality made up for it. He taught Delilah all the efficient, successful ways to sell a pape.

Jack was all she ever wanted in a brother and more. He had never let her disappear from his sight, except when she was with Crutchie. Dellie had Jack's olive green-blue eyes and his crooked grin. However, her hair was a much lighter shade of brown. It was very long, and she braided it every morning to make it less messy.

Right now however, she was busy playing a fierce game of cards with the older newsies. She was up against Jack, Finch, Elmer, and Mush. She had found she was surprisingly good at cards, and had gotten JoJo, Crutchie, and Albert out already. She looked at the spread of cards in her hand and smirked. She put down a series of cards. _four, five, six, seven, eight._ Finch stared at her open-mouthed. "I guess you are out!" She said smugly, and Finch threw his cards up in the air, defeated. She won the game, no surprises.

3 days later, every newsie was in a long line paying for papers from someone named Mr. Wiesel. _Sounds like Weasel_, She thought, as she approached the front. It had taken a week of careful watching and observing and a lot of begging Jack to let her start to sell, but she was here. She had borrowed a dime from Jack and planned to buy 20 papers.

"Hello Mister...um," She didn't know what to say. "Mister Weasel?" Everyone in line and who had heard her say that burst out laughing. Her face turned beet red as Wiesel narrowed his eyes at her. "It's Wiesel." He pronounced it like Why-zel. She nodded her head. "Got it."

He roughly handed her 20 papers, and she ran off to meet with Jack. "That was amazin'!" He said to her, playfully punching her on the shoulder. "But he's gonna hate me from this moment on," She groaned. The older boy laughed, and started walking towards two new boys in line. One looked about Jack's age, 17. The other looked about seven or eight.

Dellie watched Jack talk to the boys for a bit, and then went to join them. "Hey, what's happening?" She told Jack. "Oh, I haven't introduced you guys." He patted the older brother on the back. "Dellie, this is Davey, and this is Les. Davey and Les, this is Dellie, my sister." Davey was the old one, and Les was the younger of the latter. "I'm Les, and I'm nine, almost ten!" He says, with the enthusiasm only a little kid would have. "I'm Delilah, but call me Dellie." Davey smiled at her, and Les shook her hand, almost dislodging her wrist while doing so. "Les, don't do that," Davey said, and pulled Les' hand back. "Sorry," He apologized to Dellie. "No, that's totally fine!" Delle smiled.

"Well, Dellie, you can go sell with Crutchie now, I'll help Davey and Les catch up," Jack said, and gave her one last hug. "See you at lunchtime!"

Dellie couldn't see where Crutchie had gone, so she asked around and went in the general direction he had gone. She walked around for a long while, managing to sell about 6 papers on the way. Suddenly she spotted a figure heading toward her and froze.

Uncle Edward?


	3. Long Lost Chapter 3

**TW for violence and abuse so if you don't like that stuff then skip please! But on a happier note, hey everyone! Something big happens this chapter so stay tuned! Also I love you guys just to say that hehe.**

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Dellie's first instinct was to run. But she stood frozen in place, and couldn't move as Uncle Edward spotted her and started running towards her, a whip in his hand and a dark scowl on his once-handsome, scarred face.

"You." He growled, grabbing her wrist roughly and forcing her into a dark alleyway where no one could see. There he hit her across the face with his fist. Hard. The pain was almost unbearable for Delilah. He repeated the motion again and again, all while Dellie was telling herself, _Don't give him the satisfaction of knowing you're scared. Don't cry._ Her uncle liked seeing her cry. It just gave him more motivation.

She bit her lip. Her uncle had switched to the whip now. One lash. Second lash. Third lash. In the week she had been with the newsies, she had completely forgotten what if felt like when her uncle got mad. The older man shoved her to the ground, facefirst. There was a striking pain in her left foot. She must've twisted it when she had fallen.

"You know what you did to me, running away like that?" Her uncle threatened, kicking her stomach. She couldn't stand the pain and let out a small whimper. "Oh I bet you don't," He continued. "That night, I set up a marriage with the blacksmith's son and I was waiting for you to wake up, to find you weren't there!" Dellie hated the blacksmith's son. He was always claiming how much better he was than everyone else. Uncle Ed laughed, like a crazy person. "They terminated the deal," He growled, kicking her again. "This is what you get when you mess with me!"

He left her in that alley. He had claimed it was to teach her a lesson, but the pain was excruciating. She was too weak to do anything except curl up in a feral position and cry. She lay there for who knew how long, with a bloody nose and cuts all over her body. Suddenly she heard a distant voice shout, "Dellie? Delilah, where are you?" She thought she was just hallucinating it, closed her eyes and everything went dark.

Meanwhile, Racetrack Higgins was racing (haha see what I did there?) down the streets, in a frantic attempt to find their new recruit. "Dellie? Delilah, come on, where are you?" As soon as he had heard from Crutchie at lunch that he hadn't seen Dellie anywhere, nor had anyone else, he had jumped up and ra down the street, calling her name and determined to find her. Jack had called for him to slow down, to organize search parties, but Race ignored him.

He looked in every corner, every alley, everywhere a little girl might have gone to or someone might've taken her to. He stopped at a dark figure on the ground in a dark alleyway. "Dellie?" He asked, stepping closer. "Dellie, is that you?" He gasped. Dellie was slumped on the ground, unconscious. There were bleeding cuts all over her body and lashes on her arms from...a whip? And her left foot was twisted in a really weird position. "Oh no, Dellie!" Race lifted her up on his back and started back to the clearing that was Newsies Square.

The first newsie to spot Race was Crutchie. He had been left behind to see if anyone had come back. His face dropped. "Race, is that...?" He caught a glimpse of Delilah. "Oh my..." He took Dellie from his arms. "What's gonna happen now?" Race asked. As Crutchie started with his first aid kit he always had handy, he told Race, "I don't know."


End file.
